Two Months Ago
The changeling queen pulled herself to her hooves, dragging herself from the crater of her own impact. Around her, she could hear several changelings stir.
“Q’Aem Qar’is Allis?” the closest one muttered, as he crawled towards his queen.
“To you hooves, Sheth!” Qar’is barked. She turned her head around surveying her fallen soldiers. Many, she noted, were not rising, though there were several already making their way towards her. “Ode Sheth, to your Q’Aem!”
“Ma Q’Aem,” one of her generals spoke, as she bowed her head low.
“How many Sheth still live?”
“About one-fifth of our original forces, ma Q’Aem.”
Qar’is scowled. The Q’Ai would revel in the chance to use this loss against her.
“Ode Sheth! We march for Kyriv Ria’Dask, before those sniveling Q’Ai destroy another city!”
Qar’is did not wait for the Ode Sheth to finish barking the orders to the Sheth when she began the slow march back to the changeling capital.
She trusted her Ode would follow her into the bowels of Tartarus if she asked.
Forty Years Ago
“Again!”
Qar’is cursed under her breath as she got back to her hooves. She barely had time to rub the bruise forming under her chitin when her father lunged again. She parried his attack as he thrust the blunted blade of his glaive towards her chest.
Her laugh of triumph was cut short when the other end of his staff impacted with the side of her horn, cancelling out her magic.
“Ahhh!” she screamed as she dropped to the ground, massaging her temples with her hooves. “That hurt!”
“As would the real thing, my daughter!” He replied, as he deftly swung the glaive around in his hooves. “Your enemy will hold nothing back… so you must neither!”
“You mean ‘neither should you’, Entos,” a voice said, carrying across the courtyard.
Entos turned to find his wife—Teren Allis, Q’Aem of the changelings—walking towards them with his step-daughter. “Bah! Words won’t win fights!”
“Clearly spoken by someone who has never studied diplomacy!” Aat sneered.
Entos frowned, staring daggers at his step-daughter. “And Diplomacy was what saved all when Kyriv Ajavi fell?” he asked, not bothering to hide the anger in his tone.
“Know your place, Sheth!” Aat snarled.
“Enough!” Teren barked. “I will not have my husband and my daughter fighting. It was that kind of infighting that caused Kyriv Ajavi to fall. Aat, please return to your studies. Q’Aurab Pe will be displeased if you are late to her class again.”
“Very well, mother,” Aat replied with a bow, before nodding to the others. “Sheth, Qar’is.”
Qar’is waited until her half-sister’s back was turned, and poked her tongue as she walked away.
“Qar’is,” Teren groaned as she watched her daughter.
“Yes, mother?” Qar’is replied, her voice sickeningly sweet.
“You are nineteen years of age, I do wish you would act it,” Teren sighed.
Qar’is groaned; it wasn’t her fault that Aat hated her! Aat constantly lorded it above Qar’is and her younger brother, that she was hatched Q’Ai blood, while they were worthless Sheth.
Their father may have been hatched Sheth blood, but he had fought hard and earned his place amongst the Ode Sheth. And the Q’Aem chose him as her consort after the fall of Ajavi! What did Aat’s father ever do to boast about… be a part of some lazy Q’Ai family, so desperate for a partner his marriage was arranged?
Qar’is would spit in disgust if her mother was not there.
Teren looked out over the city. “Qar’is… you know I am not long for this world.” Teren cut off Qar’is’ objections before she could start. “It is true, my daughter. I will soon be returning to Aurabas’ side. Aat will need your support, and the support of Erez, if she is to take my place as Q’Aem.”
Qar’is groaned inwardly at the thought of Aat becoming Q’Aem. Q’Aem Aat Allis. It even sounded stupid.
“The three of you must stand a united front,” Teren continued, draping a gossamer wing across Qar’is’ back. “If you can not, then our family will fall victim to the Q’Ai again, and they will select a new family.
“You must keep her safe, my daughter,” Teren whispered as she laid her chin upon Qar’is’ poll. “It is why I have allowed your father to teach you the ways of the Sheth. Aat may seem strong headed, but she will need your strength and support. You will have to be her dagger and her shield.”
Unseen by her mother, Qar’is smirked… she’d have prefered being the dagger in her sister’s back.
“Now, your father seems to be getting restless,” Teren said, smiling as she let her daughter go. “You know how he gets when he hasn’t beaten something up for more than ten minutes!”
Entos smirked as he swung the glaive around in his hooves again. “Again!”
Six Weeks Ago
“Ma Q’Aem,” the Ode Sheth whispered as she bowed. “Many of the Sheth will not make this trip, their injuries are too great. Perhaps we could backtrack and stop in Kyriv Oidae and send word from the—”
“Drain them of their residual love, and distribute it amongst the rest.” Qar’is ordered. “We keep marching; we will rest when we reach Kyriv Ria’Dask!”
“By your orders, ma Q’Aem.”
Thirty Six Years Ago
“Aat!” Qar’is galloped down the hall, trying to catch up with her sister. “Sister! Wait!”
Aat continued her slow walk down the corridor, paying no attention to the changeling calling out to her.
“Aurabas damn it, Aat, wait up!” Qar’is caught up to her sister, slowing down to a canter. From this close, Qar’is could see the tears staining her normally stoic sister’s cheeks. Qar’is dared not mention it, for she could feel her cheeks were the same. “Aat, please come back. We need… we need to organise the funeral.”
“I must see the Q’Ai Council at once.”
“Damnit, Aat!” Qar’is snarled, grasping her sister by the shoulder. “The council can wait a few Aurabas damned days!”
“Get your hooves off me!” Aat screeched, striking Qar’is. “Do not presume to touch your Q’Aem, Sheth, or I shall have the council declare you Sh’Eea!”
“You… you wouldn’t!” Qar’is gasped.
Aat loomed over Qar’is “I would not hesitate in the slightest to have your cursed wings torn out and cast you out! You, your father, your brother! All of you!”
Qar’is snarled, and forced herself into a bow. “Then I shall leave you be, ma Q’Aem.”
“My Daughter, Qar’is should be Q’Aem!” Entos shouted at the sneering Q’Ai Council. “This talk of diplomacy and trade… with our food… is an abomination! My beloved Teren would never have allowed this madness!”
“You have no place to speak here, Ode Sheth!” Q’Ai Phorda called out. “You will speak with respect to your Q’Aem!”
“I would speak with respect to her if she had earned that respect!”
The council chamber broke out into a furor. Most of the Q’Ai were calling for his exile.
Aat lifted her hoof for silence.
“My mother, Aurabas rest her soul, was far too soft with the Sheth,” she said, staring down at the changeling before her. “By marrying you, she allowed the Sheth and Ode Sheth to think themselves more important than they are.
“I shall show no such leniency, and as such, you will be made an example of… to remind the Sheth who they serve!”
Shouts of ‘Sh’Eea’ resounded through chamber.
“No. The Sheth will not be exiled. He will be executed, tomorrow, at dawn.”
Qar’is was in the barracks with her fellow Ode Sheth when the news came down. The Ode Sheth were instructed to file out into the palace courtyard with all Sheth under their command.
Qar’is stood with her own regiment in formation behind her. A wooden gallows had been erected, and there was a disorderly murmur running amongst the Sheth.
“Attention, Sheth!” Qar’is ordered, as Q’Aem Aat Allis walked out onto her balcony. A hooded changeling was led on to the gallows, bound in iron shackles, closely followed by Q’Ai Phorda and a black-hooded headsman.
“Citizens! Sheth! Ode Sheth!” Aat’s voice echoed throughout the courtyard; her voice amplified by her magic. “Before you today stands a criminal Sheth… one who dared to speak out against his Q’Aem, and her trusted Q’Ai council.
“Under my mother’s rule, through her marriage to the hero Sheth Entos, she allowed the Ode Sheth more power than they are capable of wielding. We trust in the traditions of our nation, that the Ba Shupua are the body, the Q’Aurab the heart and the Ode Sheth the arms of our great empire.
“But it is the Q’Ai who are the head, and the Q’Aem at the front of us all. Those who would defy the Q’Ai and refuse to accept their place… must be punished.”
Qar’is bit back a gasp as the hood was pulled back from the Sheth’s head. Her father stood there, wings broken and horn broken off, but he stood with his head held high. They may have broken his body, but those cursed Q’Ai had not broken his spirit.
“Renounce your treasonous words, Sheth,” Q’Ai Phorda said, “and pay tribute to your rightful Q’Aem. We may yet show leniency and exile you.”
Entos stepped forward and spat in the face of Q’Ai Phorda, then laid his neck over the headsman’s block.
“So be it,” Q’Aem Aat Allis called.
Qar’is bristled with rage and horror as she watched the axe come down on her father’s neck. She could feel her regiment behind her beginning to surge forward.
“Stay in formation, Sheth!” she hissed back. She was certain she had heard her some of her fellow Ode Sheth order the same.
“Return to your barracks, Sheth, and know your place once more! Any further resistance will be met with same fate.”
Qar’is was certain she had felt Aat’s eyes directed at her, before the Q’Aem turned to leave.
“You heard your Q’Aem, Sheth,” Qar’is barked. “Fall out!”
Three Weeks Earlier
“The Talit have returned from the city, ma Q’Aem,” the Ode Sheth said as she entered the Q’Aem’s tent. “It is as you suspected, the Q’Ai Council has already sequestered themselves in the Capitol building. No news yet over who they may be choosing.”
“My body hasn’t even been retrieved and they are trying to choose a successor?” Qar’is sighed. “I had thought those toadies and sycophants would have taken longer.
“At the very least, I can count on their constant in-fighting to delay their choice.”
The Ode Sheth nodded.
“Ready the Sheth, we break camp at dawn. We need to double-time back to Kyriv Ria’Dask!”
“At once, ma Q’Aem!”
Thirty Five Years Ago
“Ready the Sheth,” Qar’is whispered to her fellow Ode Sheth.
A silent resistance had sprung up within the majority of the Sheth and Ode Sheth. Entos was a renowned hero amongst the warrior castes, and his execution had been very unifying for the Sheth. Those who dissented were quickly disposed of, with the Q’Aem and the Q’Ai none-the-wiser.
“The Talit are in position,” Ode Sheth Vijik whispered, “and the Sheth accompanying Q’Ai Phorda are ready for the ambush.”
“Tomorrow, at dawn,” Qar’is whispered, a sinister grin crossing her face, “the traitors to the changelings will die.”
“All hail Q’Aem Qar’is Allis!” the Ode Sheth quietly cheered.
“Hold, Sheth!” Q’Ai Phorda barked as they approached the Equestrian border. She stepped forward, leaving her guard enterage behind, as did her contact. On the other side of the border, stood twelve armored Celestial guards, accompanying the stallion Phorda was to communicate with, Duke Silverstream.
“Greetings, Duke Silverstream. I am honored to finally speak with you in person,” Q’Ai Phorda said, with a slight bow.
“Well, howdy there yer self,” Duke Silverstream replied, doffing his stetson and returning a polite bow. “Let me be the first to welcome y’all to Equestria. The Princess looks forward to meeting you. If’n yer ready, we can head back to Dodge Junction, where her Highness is waiting.”
Q’Ai Phorda allowed herself a small smile, and turned back towards her guards. “Wait here, I shall return in—”
Q’Ai Phorda looked down at her chest. Protruding from the chitin was a small paralysis dart, one commonly used amongst the Talit.
Changeling figures emerged from behind the rocky outcroppings around them, painted in the same ruddy hues of the Badlands around them.
Q’Ai Phorda cursed, as she watched paralysed as Talit slaughtered the Duke and his Celestial guard. Her Sheth guard stand and watch, making no move to defend her.
As the Talit finished standing the speared head of the Duke in the ground, Phorda’s Ode Sheth stepped forward.
The Ode Sheth leaned down and whispered in Phorda’s ear. “Q’Aem Qar’is Allis regrets your services will not be needed in her new council.”
Phorda tried to gurgle a response as the Ode Sheth pressed her armored hoof on the Q’Ai’s throat.
Kyriv Ria’Dask burned around her as Qar’is led the Sheth in an assault on the palace.
The Q’Ai offered no resistance, and the Palace Guard had been carefully replaced with Qar’is’ supporters over the last year.
They marched through to the Council, barely challenged by the few loyalists brave enough to defend themselves. All were slaughtered, whether they resisted or tried to flee.
Standing before the large door to the Council chambers, Qar’is lit her horn and thrust her magic forward. The ancient door, once crafted by an artisan family raised to Q’Ai over thirty generations before exploded in a hail of splinters and iron.
“What is the meaning of this treason?” Aat yelled as Qar’is and her Sheth stormed into the room.
“Isn’t it obivious, sister… you’re about to be deposed!”
“Sheth, you dare come into this Council and threaten your betters?”
Qar’is laughed, she could see her sister shaking, despite her bravado, as Qar’is’ Sheth began executing the Q’Ai present. Qar’is sauntered across the floor towards her sister’s throne.
“Betters? Betters‽” she scoffed. “All I see here are fat, bloated ticks, sucking the blood from their betters, feeding on the hard work of others. The Q’Ai are a cancer, and like any cancer, it must be cut out.”
Qar’is was standing above her sister, laughing as she deflected the Q’Aem’s pathetic attempts at striking her.
“You are an enigma… both a relic of the old society, but also willing to corrupt us with your liberal ideas,” Qar’is laughed. “By now, Q’Ai Phorda is dead, and all hopes of diplomacy with your ponies has joined her.”
“You fool!” Aat screeched. “You’ve brought—”
“I tire of your prattling!”
Qar’is plunged her horn into Aat’s throat, feeling it carve through the Q’Aem’s chitin.
“This is for father, a changeling far better than you ever were.” Qar’s charged up her horn, and discharged it in Aat’s flesh. The Council hall fell silent as the Q’Aem’s head rolled from the dais into the center of the council floor.
“Aat’s foolish rule is no more!” Qar’is cackled as she took the throne. “This will be a new era for changelings, prosperous and powerful. None shall stand in our way!”
“All Hail Q’Aem Qar’is Allis!” the Ode Sheth cheered. The Sheth around the room bowed, along with most of the remaining Q’Ai councilmembers.
Qar’is turned to the remaining councilmembers. “Do you swear your undying fealty to me, and to the black throne?”
Murmurs of assent echoed around the room.
“Good,” Qar’is replied, smiling. “Sheth? Kill them!”
Q’Aem Qar’is Allis stood proudly atop the gallows, looking out at the crowd. The Q’Ai who had not been councilmembers and had sworn fealty to her had been spared, each looking forward to one of the seven council seats alotted to the Q’Ai on the Q’Aem’s new council. The rest would be picked from the Ba Shupua, the Q’Aurab and the Ode Sheth.
Those who had resisted were going to be dealt with, publicly.
Qar’is felt it fitting that the old regime should be finally done away with on the same gallows her father had made his bold final stand.
Ode Sheth Vijik read the charges against each of the Q’Ai members who had resisted, and they were swiftly executed.
Qar’is felt a pang in her heart when the final prisoner was brought to the gallows. Her own brother, Erez, the last of her living family, had sided against her. He had married into another Q’Ai family after they were stripped of their titles by the former Q’Aem.
And now he stood there, against her, defending the old, corrupt regime.
“Erez,” Qar’is whispered. “You stand guilty of treason against your Q’Aem. Just repent, and you can go free, brother! Why do you choose to side with the Q’Ai, and disrespect to our father?”
“I choose the Q’Ai, out of respect for our mother!” he hissed in return. “I may not have agreed with Aat on many things, but mother chose her for a reason. And I trust that faith mother had in her.”
“You forget, we are Ode Sheth!” Qar’is yelled, ignoring the audience listening in.
“And you forget we are also Q’Ai.”
Erez stepped forward, and laid his neck across the headsman’s block. Like the others, he shed no tears for his death, accepting it with a stoic mien.
Qar’is stared into his eyes, smiling at the same defiance that had been in her father’s eyes. Erez may have sided with the Q’Ai and the old regime… but he was still Sheth at heart.
“Do it,” she ordered.
Now
“We must decide on a new family!” Q’Ai Dakfo yelled, stamping her hoof on the council floor. “The empire cannot be without its Q’Aem!”
“Oh, and I suppose you want that family to be your own, Dakfo?” Q’Sheth Tophis yelled. “It should be our family! Q’Aem Qar’is Allis, Aurabas rest her soul, counted mother amongst one of her most trusted advisors! As Q’Sheth, we owe it to our former Q’Aem to see that a Ode Sheth sits on the black throne!”
“Why should it not be Q’Shupua that sit upon the black throne?” another changeling called out. “One of our number could lead the changelings into an industrial expansion the likes this world has never seen!”
Amongst the shouting and arguing, no changeling heard the approaching sound of metal shod hooves on the polished marble floor.
The door exploded inward in a haze of splinters and iron. Through the ruined mess, Q’Aem Qar’is Allis stepped through the archway, her Sheth and Ode Sheth fanning out into the room around the councillors.
“Trying to replace me so soon?” Chrysalis sneered at the cowering councillors. “Sorry to say, but the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!”
She climbed the dais towards the black throne, and sat upon it.
“Th-the invasion, your majesty?” one of the councillors asked, nervously staring at the Sheth surrounding them.
“Delayed, that is all!”
“But… but we heard—”
“What you heard is irrelevant!” the Q’Aem scoffed. “We just need more Sheth. Q’Shupua K’Sara, your plans for the next breed of Sheth… have them on my desk by the end of this week.”
Q’Shupua K’Sara gave a sinister grin. “Of course, ma Q’Aem, I’d be delighted to.”
